⚽ Not a HOOD, a jersey

Oh, hey there!

We’ve got a short week this week, but there’s still lots of news. Doesn’t feel like the summer slowdown has hit just yet.

Today we’re talking about Robinhood, Ubisoft, ApeCoin, and more.

— Kate Irwin

Robinhood takes another shot on goal

During Robinhood’s big crypto announcements in France this week, including an Arbitrum L2 chain of its own, the consumer trading app also unveiled a multiyear sponsorship with French soccer team OGC Nice that kicks off in the 2025/2026 season. 

The Robinhood logo will appear across the front of team shirts, plus training and warm-up kits. Expect branded content and digital collabs, as well. 

Robinhood will also be part of a dedicated web series with OGC Nice about financial accessibility, according to a message from a spokesperson.

“France is fast cementing its position as a global fintech hub — and it plays an important role in our international footprint,” said Robinhood Crypto SVP and GM Johann Kerbrat in a statement. 

“This partnership represents a personal and meaningful moment for me as a lifelong football fan who studied and began my career in Nice, but it also demonstrates our commitment to growing our presence as Robinhood expands across the EU. It presents an opportunity to connect with a passionate fan base and introduce new audiences to a cutting-edge suite of financial products,” Kerbrat said.

Robinhood made some big announcements for EU customers this week including over 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs, plus perpetual futures. Prospective perp traders will have to fill out an application to be approved, though.

The duration and financial terms of Robinhood’s deal with the Ligue 1 soccer team haven’t been publicly disclosed.

The soccer and sports worlds more broadly aren’t strangers to crypto partnerships, of course. FC Barcelona unveiled an NFT avatar and crypto wallet play last month, for instance. 

Robinhood has sponsored a few NBA teams in the past including the Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, and Miami Heat. This year, it sponsored NASCAR team 23XI. 

But I still wouldn’t say crypto sports deals are booming — though maybe it’s unfair to compare the landscape to the frothiness of a few years ago.

The last time we really saw tons of them was when FTX sponsored TSM esports, the MLB, two stadiums, Mercedes’ F1 team, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and others (which felt like a bit much, even at the time). Around that time in 2021, Crypto dot com reportedly paid $700 million to sponsor an LA-based stadium that’s now the Crypto dot com Arena. 

Coinbase, arguably Robinhood’s biggest crypto competitor, has continued to sponsor NBA basketball. It also announced an esports partnership with Riot Games earlier this year.

Bitcoin L2 gamifies mainnet with quests, soulbound NFTs

The EVM-compatible Bitcoin L2 (yes, it’s a thing) known as Botanix has launched its mainnet — and is trying to bring crypto newbies into its ecosystem with a gamified website dubbed Bitcoin 2100 that doubles as an educational tool.

They’re also giving away anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million worth of BTC, the team told me.

Bitcoin 2100 has hidden crypto Easter eggs, memes, and offers a bird’s eye view of a crypto-themed town. Clicking on different areas of the site reveals different quests, mini-games, and blockchain features, from a spin-the-wheel game to a Bitcoin faucet that dishes out small amounts of BTC at a time. 

There’s also a “Predict the Block” betting game and a puzzle game about finding Satoshi’s keys (one private key will have 0.1 BTC up for grabs).

In true crypto fashion, participants will need a referral code from the Botanix Discord server in order to get involved and access the games.

There are eight different quests in total, and the campaign will run for eight weeks. 

ApeCoin DAO is no more

ICYMI, the ApeCoin DAO is going away. The proposal to sunset the DAO and transform it into ApeCo was championed by Yuga and Bored Apes founder Greg Solano. It passed with over 99% of votes in favor. 

The proposal exceeded the 35M APE ($20.7 million) needed to reach a quorum, with over 46.7M APE ($27.6 million) cast to vote in total.

The DAO community manager known as “LiveFast9986” said they believe “many” of the 3,175 wallets that voted were bots. But I guess that’s not a concern to the group, because it looks like the DAO is now being shut down regardless.

It’ll be interesting to see whether ApeCo is a more effective structure for bringing the Apes — and NFTs more broadly — back on crypto’s radar.

Ubisoft crypto game adds AI agents

The crypto-powered battle arena shooter game Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E is adding autonomous AI agents powered by LibertAI. Each “Niji Warrior” NFT will now get a “persona-driven” AI agent that can assess game-related governance proposals and vote onchain via ERC-6551 tokenbound wallets.

"In a universe that satirizes technocracies, surveillance, and synthetic identity, turning governance into playable fiction feels like the most honest move we could make,” Ubisoft Executive Producer and Technical Director Didier Genevois said. 

"These AI-driven NFTs stage a living experiment where players can explore — and play with — the very idea of governance.”

IMO, gaming isn't dead yet. But yes, yet another crypto game is shutting down due to financial issues: